Sea of Thieves – First Impressions

Avast ye landlubbers and rat scallions lend me your ears and I’ll tell ye a tale about a new endeavour rarely coming for the Xbox and PC, that being Sea of Thieves.

Firstly, I’ve been fortunate enough to be involved with Sea of thieves as part of the closed alpha for quite some time, but for the foremost, this review is based on my experience with the closed beta build of the game.

The first game coming out in 2018 that has had me buzzing about gaming this year is on the horizon. I’m frothing at the mouth to sink my teeth into the full release of Sea of Thieves. Although with my excitement, there are parallel feelings of concern, it’s an odd combination of excitement and worry, a feeling one might get when expecting the birth of their first child. Ok maybe not to that extreme but the worry is there none the less. More on the worry further on.

Sea of thieves is a gorgeous looking game, the artwork has a cartoony feel, but it’s not over the top. Environments are varied and I found myself taking in a vista and taking a screenshot of a sunset as it was just phenomenal to look at. The sunsets are great and as such, they still fall a close second behind the water in this game. I have not seen water so beautiful, so pretty and on top of that so realistic in a game that I could think of. I was blown away seeing how great the water looks and acts. Whether it’s the rough sea of a storm or the still blue calmness of a lagoon, it’s all there and at no point in time did I feel the water reacted unrealistically. It is a perfect addition to a game about traversing the ocean sea; it’s a credit to the developers on how good the water is

I’m frothing at the mouth to sink my teeth into the full release of Sea of Thieves

The main attraction of Sea of Thieves, however, isn’t the view; it’s the core gameplay and I loved how fun and engaging the co-op can be. Where can I fully endorse you playing this game with 3 other friends? Everybody has a role to play and coordination is critical to success. Minor things like sailing the ship correctly require teamwork and communication, and this becomes more apparent when sailing through a terrifying storm. With one person on the helm and the rest of the crew patching up holes in the hull or bailing out buckets of water, or the ship to ship combat where the action is exciting and intense each crew desperately trying to sink the other. The core gameplay of sea of thieves is tremendous, accepting quests or voyages as they are called, deciphering where the treasure is with x marks the spot or a riddle written down on paper. And then finally locating said gold and bringing it back to the trader while avoiding other pirates that are keen to steal your score is a thrill similar to the intensity of being in the final circle for that PUBG chicken dinner

Completing these treasure hunts, of course, yields gold and you can use said gold to purchase items and various cosmetic upgrades. I’m unclear yet how much more will be available upon final release, but it gives value to the gold you’re hunting. This is where I’m concerned, although there is enough in the beta to get me through the first few hours of gameplay, that does not seem to be much of a variety or depth to the game at all. The voyagers will need to be varied and complex for it not to become too taxing and right now, I’d describe them as being like a giant bunch of fetch quests. You are able to run off and do your own thing, but even that kind of thing can quickly become a repetitive grind. I have a big question mark around progression in the game, will it be purposeful enough for me to keep coming back to the pirate adventure especially if the voyages become a grind to do.

It’s these kinds of questions around the longevity of the game have me worried and if they can be rectified or if the beta is hiding a lot of content, then I’d wager this will be Microsoft’s best exclusive outside of gears and halo for years. My fears aside this game is fantastic and I will be playing it more once the full game drops

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